OBAMA IMMIGRATION MOVE TRICKY FOR RUBIO -- President Barack Obama’s move Friday to cease deportation of certain young illegal immigrants has Sen. Marco Rubio reconsidering his plans to introduce similar legislation as an alternative to the DREAM Act. A Rubio spokesman told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell there were similarities between Obama’s action and Rubio’s theoretical legislation. “Obama's move kicks the can down the road for two years,” the spokesman said. In a written statement, Rubio argued Obama’s executive action will make it harder for permanent legislation to pass. http://cbsn.ws/NtaJj1

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-- A Democratic Senate aide crows about Obama’s plan to Roll Call’s Humberto Sanchez: “It’s hard to steal someone’s thunder when they have been working on a bill for three months and receiving a lot of coverage for it. Detractors can say what they will about President Obama’s plan, but it gets results.” The aide said Obama’s move means Rubio won’t struggle to get his bill through Congress. http://bit.ly/KvhZc7

-- In a news analysis, the New York Times’ Helene Cooper and Julia Preston note increased prodding in recent weeks from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Whip Richard Durbin, along with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) played a major role in Obama’s decision. http://nyti.ms/LzmSgc

-- Even if Rubio is unsure of what to do next, he looks like a model of clarity compared to Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney . On Friday, Romney outsourced his position to Rubio, telling reporters: “I happen to agree with Marco Rubio, as he will consider this issue. He said this is an important matter. We have to find a long-term solution. But the president’s action makes reaching a long-term solution more difficult.” On Sunday, Romney wouldn’t say if he would reverse the president’s policy during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” -- Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), arguably Congress’ fiercest immigration hawk, announced he planned to sue Obama over the new policy, the Des Moines Register’s Jennifer Jacobs reports. While King didn’t know when he would file, he told Jacobs that some of the “best conservative constitutional lawyers have their heads together now.” http://dmreg.co/MImeML

DeMINT: SCOTUS DEFEAT WOULD BE DESERVED ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’— Sen. Jim DeMint (R.-S.C.) sat down with POLITICO as part of our “SCOTUS & Health Care: The Final Countdown” video series, and as usual, didn’t mince words about exactly what a Supreme Court strike down would mean for Democrats who passed the law: “If the court throws it out, I think it’s a well-deserved slap in the face to the president and the Congress to make us think that what we’re here for is to honor our oath of office, which is the pledge to defend the Constitution, which limits what we can do,” DeMint said.

-- Like most Republicans, DeMint believes the whole law should be scrapped regardless of whether the court strikes it down, Jonathan Allen writes in POLITICO. But taking a more controversial stance, he argued fellow Republicans shouldn’t rush to replace even the most popular of provisions if they are struck down. “If we keep people on the plans 26, 30 years old, it encourages people not to get their own health care; it gives them time to develop health conditions that might make it harder for them to get their health care in the future,” he said. “It just is not a smart thing to do.” http://bit.ly/Lgawgj

--DEMS HAVE NO POST-HCR PLAN -- A Supreme Court ruling on President Obama’s health care reform law could come as early as today -- although most think it won’t arrive until next week but congressional Democrats have heard little from the White House: “There have been no meetings, no phone calls and no paper exchanged with the administration, according to Democratic lawmakers and staff. The top aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, David Krone and John Lawrence, did meet with the White House’s chief congressional lobbyist, Rob Nabors, last week to discuss a variety of issues.

-- But Nabors didn’t provide any information on how the president plans to approach the court’s ruling, according to sources familiar with the meeting,” POLITICO’s Jonathan Allen and Manu Raju reported Friday. “... It’s almost as if talking about a ‘plan B’ is verboten as the White House anxiously awaits perhaps the most anticipated Supreme Court opinion since Bush v. Gore. A decision is expected in the final two weeks of June.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, for one, “won’t engage in any talk about what happens if her crowning legislative achievement is torn apart by the high court.” http://bit.ly/P93iux

GOOD MONDAY MORNING, June 18 2012, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day’s congressional news. I’ll be your guest host this week so please be nice to me and pass along tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to KNocera@politico.com. As always, you can find me on Twitter @KateNocera. Jake is @jakesherman, Jon is @jonallenDC and Robillard is @PoliticoKevin. You can also follow your regular Huddle host Scott Wong: @ScottWongDC, who passes along this photo of his gorgeous new baby girl Olivia: http://bit.ly/LgdEca

My new followers include @HannahMiet and @Ericwilson.

PORTMAN, RYAN TRYING OUT FOR VEEP -- The New York Times reports on Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-Ohio) vice presidential tryout this weekend: “In the privacy of Mr. Romney’s bus, the two chatted about politics and policy as they chugged across Ohio. Mr. Portman even helped clean up some of Mr. Romney’s grandchildren, who were out on the road for the day and messy from blueberry pie,” Ashley Parker and Jeff Zeleny write. “Mr. Portman, who was elected to the Senate in 2010 after representing the Cincinnati area in Congress for 12 years, is seen as a leading prospect. He fits Mr. Romney’s strategic imperative for governing, after serving in both Bush administrations. Yet he has told friends he is unsure whether his work for President George W. Bush, particularly as the budget director, would be a drawback and provide an opening for Mr. Obama to argue that he inherited a growing deficit.” The duo also notes Rubio “does not know Mr. Romney well” but is “increasingly being dispatched by the campaign to appear at fund-raisers across the country.” Rep. Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee Chair, gets his crack today as Romney campaigns in Ryan’s hometown of Janesville. http://nyti.ms/MgjHgx

-- ROB WHO? ABC’s Amy Walter finds voters at Romney’s rally in Ohio who don’t know who the senator is. One, when asked about Portman, responds: “What state he is from?” At a different event, a man asks if Portman is Romney’s eldest son, Tagg. Portman is 15 years older than Tagg. http://wapo.st/M6nr1V

--BOEHNER STUMPS WITH ROMNEY— House Speaker John Boehner was on hand as well to campaign with the presumptive Republican nominee. It was their first public appearance together and afterwards the two men had burgers at K’s, a local haunt in Boehner’s western Ohio district. Juana Summers reports from the trail: [T]he House speaker praised Romney’s business background in this crucial swing state on Sunday. “Before I got into this crazy business, I ran a small business just like Rob Portman did and just like Mitt Romney did,” Boehner said here. “We understand how the economy works and we understand what it’s going to take to get the American people back to work.” http://bit.ly/KuTKe9

-- The Boehner and Romney event does represent a new phase in Romney’s relationship with the GOP House, Jake Sherman reported this weekend. But don’t expect the pair to be attached at the hip this campaign season. http://politi.co/KABoth

TODAY IN CONGRESS— BOTH! Chambers are in session today. The Senate is convening at 3 p.m and will be working to firm up an amendment deal for the farm bill. A vote on the nomination of Mary Lewis to be a U.S district judge in South Carolina should come around 5:30. The House comes back at 2, and will take up nine suspension bills with votes expected around 6:30.

-- AROUND THE HILL— At 2, Reps. Ed Markey and Henry Waxman are holding a press conference on the energy bill in HVC studio B. At 2:30 Rep. Lamar Smith and other Republicans will gather for a press conference on President Obama’s new immigration policy. That’s in HVC studio A.

NORQUIST TO HUDDLE WITH HOUSE GOP THIS WEEK— Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp and Republican Study Committee chairman Jim Jordan are bringing Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist in on Thursday for a closed-door meeting with members and staff. Norquist will be discussing “What the Pledge is and is not; How the Pledge should be communicated; What you need to know when answering questions about the Pledge; and How Congress can make the tax code simpler, fairer, flatter and easier to understand for families and job creators in a Pledge-compliant way,” according to an invite obtained by POLITICO. http://politi.co/L1fnUk

ENERGY ISSUES CROP UP WITH FARM BILL— Darren Goode writes for the hometown paper: Senators in both parties are trying to use the farm bill to go after EPA regulations and permits as a potential last-ditch effort to affect agency policy before the election. The amendments range from the usual moves against the agency’s renewable fuels mandate and so-called farm dust controls to efforts to limit pesticide permits and boost the power of the agency’s liaison to farmers. http://politi.co/KuARrL

OUTSIDE MONEY BOOSTING MANDEL -- Josh Mandel, the young Ohio State Treasurer challenging Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, is facing “repeated stumbles, the cloud of a campaign finance investigation and a prickly relationship with his home state press corps,” POLITICO’s David Catanese writes. But $8.3 million of spending by outside conservative groups is keeping Mandel afloat. “Crossroads GPS is one of three groups that have already invested more than $1 million apiece against Brown. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is leading the charge with $3.8 million and the 60+ Association has spent more than $2.3 million.”

--‘ I’m not surprised by it, I’m surprised by the amount of it. Nobody saw this much of it coming,’ Brown told POLITICO in an interview. … ‘I think the outside spending on the conservative side has been very effective and has helped tightened the race,’ Mandel said in an interview, stressing that the law bars coordination with such groups. ‘They see he can be beaten.’ Brown goes further, saying the influx has served as a political life preserver for a lightweight contender. ‘This race wouldn’t be close at all if it wasn’t for the $8 million,’ he said.” http://bit.ly/NEeWk2

TRIBUNE BACKS HATCH -- The Salt Lake Tribune endorses the veteran in his primary race against former State Sen. Dan Liljenquist: “Seniority. In the U.S. Senate, it’s the measurement that matters. With it you can move mountains. Without it, you and the state you represent are largely irrelevant. That is the first big reason why Utah voters should return Orrin Hatch to the U.S. Senate, and why Republicans should choose him as their nominee in the June 26 primary. If the Republicans gain control of the Senate in November’s election, Hatch could become the second most-powerful leader in the chamber. That power is of inestimable value to the Beehive State’s interests.” http://bit.ly/Lzlqe0

BREAK-IN AT BRADY’S HOME -- “ Three suspects allegedly attempted to break into the Philadelphia home of Rep. Robert Brady (D-Pa.) on Friday,” Tomer Ovadia writes for the hometown paper. “While home alone, Brady’s wife heard a knock on the front door of their residence located on the 7000 block of Brentwood Road [in Philadelphia] at about 11:30 a.m., according to Philadelphia Police Officer Jillian Russell. Brady’s wife didn’t respond, then about an hour later at 12:45 p.m., she observed three males in the backyard while one unsuccessfully attempted to open a rear sliding door. Brady’s wife knocked on a window and the suspects fled, Russell said.” http://politi.co/Mw4fwm

SENATORS WANT IRAN PROGRESS -- “Nearly half the Senate told President Barack Obama [Friday] that unless Iran gives three specific concessions at this weekend's talks with world powers in Moscow, he should abandon the ongoing negotiations over the country's nuclear program,” Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin reports. Forty-four senators joined a letter organized by Menendez and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) “The senators wrote that the ‘absolute minimum’ Iran must do immediately to justify further talks is to shut down the Fordo uranium enrichment facility near Qom, freeze all uranium enrichment above 5 percent, and ship all uranium enriched above 5 percent out of the country.” http://bit.ly/Lr2i3c

FRIDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER— Claude Marx was the first to correctly name all three presidents who played football in college and earned letters: Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower. Many readers answered Richard Nixon; he did play football, but he did not earn a letter.

TODAY'S TRIVIA— Marx offers today's question: Before Mitt Romney, who was the last Mormon to run for president? First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day's Huddle. E-mail me at knocera@politico.com.

WEATHER -- Cloudy, with some showers this morning, and highs in the upper 70s.

** A message from the Stop The HIT Coalition: The Health Insurance Tax (HIT) drives up health care costs for small businesses, seniors, state Medicaid programs and middle-income Americans. The HIT is estimated to cost hardworking American families an additional $5,000 over a decade. And since the cost and consequences of the HIT increase over time, America’s small businesses and hardworking families are facing a bigger HIT every year. This translates to real jobs for businesses and real wages for families. That’s why the Stop The HIT Coalition – representing the nation’s small business owners and their employees – is working hard to repeal the HIT before it causes even more damage. Congress, please stop the HIT. Once and for all. http://bit.ly/1iE6tfW **

About The Author

Before coming to POLITICO, Nocera was a reporter for the New York Daily News. She has covered murders, fires, state and city politicians, snowstorms, building collapses, plane crashes, defunct city agencies and angry neighbors.

Nocera received her bachelor's in sociology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2007, but despite her best efforts to avoid a career as a reporter, fell in love with journalism her senior year. She ended up with a master's in journalism from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in 2009 with a specialization in urban reporting. She grew up in Northampton, Mass., but is a New Yorker at heart.